January zipped by and now February before I realized that Jan. 3 was the 50th anniversary of The Athens Observer’s first issue in 1974.
What was the Observer? It was what was called at the time a “free-circulation alternative weekly.” Alternative to what? To the Athens Daily News and the Athens Banner-Herald—the morning and afternoon papers owned by the Morris corporation in Augusta. They, in spite of their out-of-town ownership, toed the chamber of commerce line and supported the University of Georgia administration without question. They also did everything they could to discourage their advertisers from trying the upstart Observer.
The upstarts had no money and no newspaper experience, but they had years of involvement in university and community efforts to bring about a more progressive town and campus. They knew what’s what and who’s who, and they were a likable bunch who, even when they opposed politicians, could join them for a beer after work.
The Observer caught on because the zeitgeist was changing; more students stayed in Athens after dropping out or graduating since the Vietnam war was winding down, and they could safely leave school and open local businesses, as the Observer folks had done, creating a new advertising base.
The Observer became the voice of this new Athens that was emerging from the older, more conservative status quo. The Observer supported the election of more Black candidates and women and liberals to the all-white-men conservative city council, county commission and the state legislature. And the Observer also became the voice of the UGA faculty who were resisting their loss of collegial government to a corporate top-down model being shoved down their throats.
But the Observer editors thought just because they owned a newspaper didn’t mean they were smarter than other folks, so they kept the paper open to all shades of opinion, and the paper became like a community forum, whereas the Morris papers adhered to the party lines of business leaders and the university administration.
The Observer definitely gave a push to the more progressive and inclusive Athens that has become familiar to us, and its alumni are still all over town—editors, writers, layout artists, photographers, delivery people and also veterans of Observer TV, which started up in the early ‘80s and added a new dimension to local coverage, skimpy as it was.
The Observer changed ownership several times and eventually went out of business in 2001. By then Flagpole was going strong, having started in 1987—another shoestring effort, grounded in a strong connection with the Athens music scene and the realization that government and politics strongly affected that scene and could not be ignored.
Now, 50 years after the Observer started and 36 since the beginning of Flagpole, we still cannot take our progressive Athens for granted. The conservative business community has reared its head and threatens to take back the town, and the university is totally run by a top-down corporate administration, with faculty and student rights ever eroding, while Athens-Clarke County has been gerrymandered out of the legislature and is almost totally “represented” by white men with comfortable majorities in other counties.
In earlier days the political battles the Observer and Flagpole fought were settled democratically at the ballot box, where for a long time their candidates usually lost. And then they started winning, and their progressive vision for Athens began to be reflected in local government, in spite of the loss of representation in the legislature.
But the game has changed. At the behest of conservative businessmen, “our” legislators swooped in and abolished three of our most progressive, democratically elected commissioners—just did away with their districts and forced new elections favorable to more conservative candidates, drastically curtailing our progressive commission. More hijinks will probably ensue when Mayor Kelly Girtz’s term ends.
Athens-Clarke County needs an alternative voice more than ever. The Daily News is gone, and the Banner-Herald is now owned by the national newspaper chain Gannett, with no local ownership whatsoever. The university is owned by state politicians and the athletic association, and the commission is increasingly owned by the more conservative elements of local business and their fixers in the legislature.
The spirit of the Athens Observer belongs not to the past but to the present, and it currently lives in Flagpole and is reflected in citizens here who believe in democratic ideals democratically achieved. That’s why independent journalism matters. That’s why there’s no other alternative.
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